SplashWorld Globales Playa Estepona

We are currently coming to the end of our family holiday at the Globales Playa Estepona, it’s been a good family holiday. Firstly, the highlights! Rooms are big and spacious. They are set out in blocks and when you first arrive it’s deceiving how big the hotel actually is. We stayed in the Formentera block which gave us a great seaview. We did have a few ants in the bathroom only. I reported this to reception and it was dealt with straight away. Entertainment - the team works really hard and there’s a lot of activities that take place in the main pool. The evening entertainment is great too, the one step to broadway show was great. On another evening a band was signing lots of motion songs. The atmosphere was great and everyone was up dancing. Food - this is my one criticism and I had read the reviews before I came. There’s plenty of variety but for the size of hotel there is one main restaurant and a beach restaurant. In the evening you can book to go into the other side of the beach restaurant. The food isn’t really of any different quality h it they theme the dinner and it’s more peaceful with a sea view setting. The problem is that the reception don’t tell you this so it’s only when you login into their WiFi and read up on the hotel where you find out more. In terms of food my biggest criticism is the temperature. Don’t expect a hot cooked meal and you’ll be fine. No we didn’t stave but they need to look at how hot they are keeping their food on the show cooking stations. Additionally, in the day the beach restaurant offers burgers, pizza, hot dogs, pasta. They consistently run out of pizza, as a staple for kids it would make sense for this to be constantly cooking. Improvement here would be investing in more restaurant and kitchen staff - there’s simply not enough to keep a hotel of this size going. This leads to long queues for plates as they’re not washed in time or long queues for certain food. Pools - plenty of pools! We didn’t sit around any of the quieter ones surrounding the blocks closer to reception as the kids wanted to be near the main activity pool. This is a busy area. My one recommendation would be to bring pool shoes as it’s very wet and slippery. There are lifeguards near the pools. The ones at the splash park need to review their approach. I went down a slide where kids had blocked it - no one is keeping an eye on the safety here and it seems parents don’t educate their children either. I would recommend bringing a water bottle as saves few trips to the bar, easy to get soft drinks as it’s self serve. Yes you do have to pay for certain things for ease these are - arcade machines, trampolines, popcorn, slush and candy floss. Some require cash and some it’s bank card only so be aware. Getting out and about is relatively easy. There’s a bus stop within a 5 min walk which is opposite an Aldi and pharmacy. You can head into Estepona for just over 2 euros each or Peurto Banus. Be aware you must sit down on the bus and when seating is full you won’t be allowed on. They come every 30 mins and worth downloading the Avanza app so you can track the bus. Finally, be aware of arrival day at the hotel. After a 2 hour transfer (for some it’s 1 hour dependant on hotel drop offs) we arrived to a queue out of reception! It took an hour to check in. Because of this we didn’t know about eating at the beach restaurant etc. it was a long wait and a rushed check in once you got to the front of the queue. Please also be aware that to get a plastic cup for your drink at the bar in the day only you need to use their tokens they give you. Secondly a pool towel is. A 10 euro deposit and 1 euro every time you want it changing. Overall, it’s a 3 star holiday. The resort is not 4 star, the food doesn’t allow it to be. However, it’s lively for kids and no one will starve. However, if you want luxury or something along the lines of Turkey and Egypt all inclusive then this hotel will not give you that so be prepared.

Absolutely amazing room, spacious bathroom, food was incredible, slides and waterpark were amazing, quite busy but not an issue for me.

The resort is large and caters to a variety of different preferences when on holiday but for an all inclusive the actual included food and drink was not the best. Only basic on-tap wine beer and sangria available much of the day with many decent drinks at an additional cost. My son was hugely disappointed by the variety of ice cream and snacks available as everything he wanted was at a high additional cost. The rooms didn’t even have bottled water provided as a standard so you had to collect your own water from the few bars and restaurants at limited hours. I recommend taking your own very large refillable flasks to remain hydrated! The pools were clean and offered a variety of different atmospheres from the very busy and noisy main pool with slides to the quieter pools with or without bars. My son loved the slides but was also pleased to retreat to quieter areas too. Restaurant was average. Variety of food options but of average quality and felt the bit samey after a few days. Even the beach bar was just a themed buffet - shame there are no other options available or late night snacks for hungry teens! Location is good but the beach didn’t really feel an option to spend the day on sadly. The shuttle bus to and from Puerto Banus was excellent though. Wish we’d used this more to use the beaches there

Food too oily. Problems with the room and air conditioning . No shade in the children's play area,climbing frames and slides were too hot to go on. Some good night-time shows, no where to go just to chill except your bedroom. And sometimes noisy late at night from people staying out late

• Constantly demagnetized key cards and broken door locks. Out of an 8-day stay, I spent at least an hour every single day replacing key cards and waiting for technicians to arrive. • Sewer smell throughout the entire "Mallorca" building — I personally verified this in 5 different rooms. • Only one restaurant. Please do not be misled by the description mentioning an à la carte / reservation-based restaurant. It is merely a beach bar serving the exact same food as the main (and only) restaurant in the resort. • All complaints regarding the smell and the lock were completely ignored. They would take the report, send a technician who didn't speak a word of English ("no English, olé, Juan"), pretend to fix the issue, and the problem would immediately return. We recorded videos and called the housekeeping staff, who confirmed the sewer smell. Nothing was resolved during our entire stay. • Misleading offer by TUI. The water park is NOT exclusive to hotel guests as described in the offer. This results in overcrowded facilities and long queues for everything. People from outside the hotel get day passes for the water park and the bar located by what is called a "beach" — which in reality is a dirty channel where nobody swims, filled with aggressive vendors. The hotel itself is walled off from the beach by a fence. • A beachfront hotel with a terrible shoreline. • Repetitive entertainment. It felt like the main focus was put on Bingo. The pool activities were poorly executed by a single person (aqua aerobics consisted of just a portable speaker and a whistle ;]). That was the extent of the animations. • Relatively small hotel. The surrounding area consists of a busy main road, an Aldi supermarket, and two retirement homes. • Housekeeping didn't speak English either. They would regularly change towels for 3 people to just 1 set. Despite bringing it to their attention, showing them the issue, and reporting it to reception, nothing changed. • Cleanliness of the restaurant and bars. Tables were wiped with a single dirty rag, food scraps were wiped straight onto the floor and left there until closing time. As a result, your shoes literally stuck to the floor, and we even spotted cockroaches (I know they are common in the region, but not necessarily during lunchtime in the dining room). • The TUI rep was only seen on the day of the arrival meeting. After that, there was only standard English-speaking TUI staff dedicated to British tourists. Support was provided only via chat, which was a joke. I was asked to "document" the cleanliness of the hotel; when I asked how I was supposed to photograph the smell coming from the shower and toilet, I received no reply. The chat agents initially granted me a voucher/compensation, but after I challenged the amount and asked why nothing was happening after "their contact with the hotel manager," they revoked the decision and told me to file a formal complaint back home in Poland (sheer hypocrisy from TUI). I must add that when spending a family holiday that you paid good money for, you shouldn't have to walk around taking pictures of dirt or trying to photograph smells. The broken lock, however, has extensive video evidence. I just kept losing time. Between booked excursions and a rented car, the rest of my time was spent fighting for a sunbed at the pool, followed by trips to the room and multiple walks back to reception because I couldn't get inside (Room 219 in the Mallorca building — highly recommend avoiding it).